Spoilers for last night’s The Office below:
That was encouraging. I am not nearly ready, after one episode, to declare that the retooled, post–Steve Carell The Office has solved its problems. Without Michael Scott as its …
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The Office to James Spader: You're Hired!
The previous season of The Office ended with a cliffhanger, as Dunder-Mifflin interviewed a series of candidates to replace Michael Scott, played by a squad of guest stars. Now comes word that the show has made a hire—sort of—by signing up James Spader as a series regular. (Consider yourself spoiler-alerted if you don’t want to …
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Office Watch: You're Not the Boss of Me
Spoilers for last night’s season finale of The Office below:
There are three ways to look at “Search Committee”: (1) as an episode in itself, (2) as a way of judging the overall success of season seven of The Office and (3) as a table-setter for the extended life of Dunder-Mifflin without Michael Scott. I want to have something more …
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The Office Watch: Leaving On a Jet Plane
Spoilers for Steve Carell’s last episode of The Office:
“The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don’t know them, it wasn’t your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family. But probably all you have in common is the fact that you walk around on the …
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NBC Renewals: Community (Yay!), Parks and Rec (Yay!), The Office (Duh!)
NBC spared a lot of fans a lot of nailbiting this afternoon and announced that it is bringing back Community, Parks and Recreation and The Office for another season. 30 Rock was already renewed as of last fall. As for the other Thursday comedies: there is a very, very low ratings bar at NBC right now, but Outsourced and Perfect Couples …
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Vacation Robo-Post: The Office—NBC's Problem, And Yours
I’ve said before that I think it would probably be best if this season of The Office were its last; the show may not be called The Boss, but it is Michael Scott’s story above all, and I’d hope that the show might get a liberating creative burst from not just sending off Steve Carell but going out in a blaze of glory.
I’ve also said …
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The Morning After: Scarn Tootin'
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Objectively, as a critic, I probably wasn’t supposed to like “Threat Level: Midnight,” in which Michael Scott’s long-gestating movie finally came to fruition. It probably wasn’t plausible that the entire office would participate, and the episode was essentially like a giant, well-produced …
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TCA Roundup: Headless Peacock in Hotel Bar
Another round of headlines from the Television Critics’ Association winter press tour, which is winding down at the lovely Langham Hotel in Pasadena, and it was NBC’s turn to face the critics and reporters…
* …except no executives were on hand to do so. NBC has a new team coming in to run the network once the deal with Comcast is …
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Office Watch: A Holly, If Not Jolly, Christmas
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Spoilers for last night’s The Office coming up:
When Holly (Amy Ryan) broke up with Michael Scott, she really broke up with all of us, didn’t she? Ryan’s casting in the show was so right, and her character’s oddball fit with Michael so perfect, that when their relationship failed to survive …
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Office Watch: Get Back
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This is a little bit of a tortured analogy, but bear with me. The Office so far this season has reminded me a little of a band that late in its career, after becoming known for a string of ambitious, baroque albums, decides to take a step backward stylistically, get back to basics and release a …
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Community / Office Watch: Fright Night
Proving that there are still a vast amount of costume gags yet to be mined in the sitcom genre, both Community and The Office (and Outsourced, but I’m going to pretend it didn’t happen) delivered Halloween episodes last night. Proving that the supply of said costume gags is not unlimited, both episodes featured essentially the same …
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Office Watch: Paper Tiger
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Quick spoilers for last night’s Office coming up:
The thing about a serialized sitcom like The Office is that you watch it at the same time for how well the episode is doing and how well the series is doing. “The Sting” gave me very little to complain about on the first count; it was probably …
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The Office Watch: Razor Sharp
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Spoilers for last night’s The Office coming up:
So last night, my laptop seized up and died on me as I was watching, appropriately enough, the death-themed Community on DVR. (I am having the machine vaporized and sealed in a lava lamp.) It was a fairly strong episode—see especially the Abed …